Kenneth Copeland - Command Authority in Your Covenant with God
— Hello, everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland, and this is the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. Every believer has a voice, and it is the Voice of Victory. The Lord dropped that in my heart a long, long time ago. Now, this, I won't take the time to, well, I believe we have new listeners. I was in the northern part of the state of Texas, and those of you that have seen pictures of red cattle with white face on them, particularly in western movies, they were bred in Hereford, England. Well, there was only one rancher that would have anything to do with them. And so, it's called, it isn't called Hereford, it's called Hereford. Hereford, Texas. Right up in the panhandle of Texas. I was having a meeting there, and as per usual, I was questioning the Lord about what I should preach while I'm there. And so, our meeting was in an old abandoned drugstore building. And so, I got on my knees, and I had my outlines. And I do my outlines with the subject in blue, and the scripture in red, so that I could see the difference. And the same is true with the command authority. Anyway, and I was on my knees, and I said, "Lord, do I start on a message of salvation"? And right in here, where any Christian can hear if you're listening, he said, "Is there victory in salvation"? I said, yes. Okay. And then, preach on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He said, "Is there victory in the baptism of the Holy Spirit"? Yes. And then, we'll have a healing service. He said, "Is there victory in my healing"? I said, "Yes". He said, "Every voice, every believer has a voice, and it is the Voice of Victory if my Word is in their heart and in their mouth". I don't remember how long ago that was, but that's where it came from. And then it grew into the Victory Channel. So, now, this, I want to go back to this now. In the 14th chapter of John, and in the 16th verse. Now, I want you to notice, class, the faith of Jesus. I want you to notice it now. "And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another comforter". I will, and he will. "I will pray the Father that he may give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him, but you know him, and he dwells with you, and he will be in you". And they still don't really know, but anyway, let me go to Classic Amplified. "And I will ask the Father, and he'll give you another comforter, counselor, helper, intercessor, advocate, strengthener, and standby, that he may remain with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, welcome, take into heart, because it does not see him, or know and recognize him. But you know and recognize him, for he lives in you constantly, and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans, comfortless, desolate, bereaved, forlorn, helpless. I will come back to you". Listen to this, listen to this. Well, a comforter, that's a good word. Comforter is a good word. He'll comfort you. Your helper, your intercessor, your advocate, in other words, your lawyer, your advocate, strengthener, and standby, that he may remain with you forever.
— Remain, he remains with you.
— Yes, forever. And then, you remember what the Apostle Paul wrote. If the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he will quicken, he will make alive your mortal body. He's the standby, he's the advocate. Then Isaiah 43:45,
— I even I blotted out your sins for my own sake. What? I said, "Lord, no, no, wait a minute. Whoa, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. For my sake". He said, "No, mine. I don't know". So I'd been praying in the Spirit, praying in tongues about this, and that came up. Well, no, no. I said, "No, no, no, no, no, no. For my sake". And the Lord said, "Can't you read"?
— Well, yes, Sir. He said, "Read the rest of it. Plead your case. My advocate. Whoa, pleads your case". Okay. He said, "If I remember your sins, I cannot bless you. And my desire is to bless you with the blessing of Abraham. Do you believe that"? I said, "Yes, Sir". All of this is here. Any born-again believer can receive this if you meditate the Word of God. Anyone can hear if you listen. So as this grew, I began to plead my case. And here's what I heard. Kenneth, you're starting with a clean slate now. What is it?
— That's it.
— Yeah, that's what I said. Oh, you're starting with a clean slate.
— Now, your life began this morning. His mercy is every morning. Now, yesterday you said something, and I felt like there was some out there saying, "Well, that's not what it said". You said whatsoever you shall ask, or you said whatsoever you shall demand in my name. And people are like, no, no, no, it doesn't say that. It says ask. But I'm going to introduce you to a Greek word. And Rick Renner turned me on to this word. And since he did, I've been going everywhere with it. It's pronounced "aiteo". It's an old Greek word, and it's used in the Bible. And it literally means to ask or request, to demand or to require. I require it. And it's based on my relationship with him. So you're correct when you said that, that's that Greek word for "ask" right there, demand it. That's in John 14 and verse 13 and verse 14. See, this destroys the notion that I come to God as a little worm, just praying that you'd be nice to me if you do something nice for me. If you know, if you're not too busy, Lord. No, no, no, no. I don't go in there like that. I have some I have some rights and privileges. I'm not a worm.
— In the name. And it's in the power of that name. It's a demanding based upon relationship...
— Yes, sir.
— ...on that covenant. It has the full expectation that I'm going to receive what I just asked.
— Now, John 16:23. Are you there? And in that day, what day? The day after his resurrection. They didn't understand that. "In that day, you shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have you asked nothing in my name. Ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full". Classic Amplified. "And when that time comes, you will ask nothing of me. You will need to ask me no questions. I assure you, most solemnly, I tell you that my Father will grant you whatever you ask in my name as presenting all that I am".
— That's big. Oh, that's I am that I am. That's what that is. If you need me to be a pillar of fire, I'll be that. If you need me to be manna, I'll be that. Whatever you need me to be, I'll be.
— We've already talked about faith. Well, I'm going to go to Hebrews 11:1 in the Classic Amplified. Praise God. Now, class... Oh, this needs to be little three by five cards or sticky notes every place. Because this is it. 10:38. "But the just shall live by faith. My righteous servant shall live by his conviction, respecting man's relationship to God. And divine things and holy fervor born of faith and conjoined with it. And if he draws back and shrinks in fear, my soul has no delight or pleasure in him". And that's Habakkuk 2, three and four. "But your ways, your way is not that you draw back to eternal misery, perdition, utterly destroyed. But we are those who believe, who cleave to and trust and rely on God through Jesus Christ, the Messiah. And by faith, preserve the soul. Now, faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed of things we hope for. Being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality. Faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses. But without faith, it is impossible to please him". And then you have a hall of fame of faith. But the big thing about it. Thank You, Jesus. It goes through all of these by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith. And he always brings up Rahab. Rahab the harlot. Always. Always. Because she is in the family lineage of Jesus through David.
— That's right.
— Amen. She's in the hall of fame of faith.
— Look what her faith did. Her house was on the wall of Jericho.
— That's right.
— What was it that was destroyed in Jericho? The walls, except her house.
— Except her house.
— That's what faith can do.
— And she hid the spies in her house.
— She let that scarlet cord out there, which is the Hebrew word tikvah, which means hope. Just like Abraham, she didn't have a covenant. All she had was hope.
— There you are.
— But she had confessed him. Amen.
— And those... the 39th verse. "And all of these, though they won divine approval by means of their faith, did not receive the fulfillment of what was promised, because God had us in mind and something better and greater view for us, so that these heroes and heroines of faith should not come to perfection apart from us before we could join them. Therefore, then, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses who have borne testimony to the truth". My God.
— They never had the new covenant that we walk in. They never obtained the promise. Let me show you, let's show this again with Jesus, Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7, verse 7. "Ask, Aiteo, or demand, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. These are commands, Brother Copeland. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh, Aiteo, receiveth. And he that seeketh, findeth. To him that knocketh, it shall be opened". And at the end of that teaching, it says in verse 29 of Matthew 7. "And he taught them as one having authority. And not as the scribes". This changes your attitude. This changes the way you speak. That's what you're talking about with victory when we began this broadcast. You get this, I'm calling it the Jesus attitude. When you get a Jesus attitude about you, it changes the way you talk. It changes the way you think as having authority. What the scribes and the Pharisees would do, and we do it too. I've done it. I'll quote Brother Copeland. I'll quote Brother Hagin. And what I'm doing in there is what I'm saying. I'm adding their authority to it by quoting them. That's what the scribes and the Pharisees would do. They would quote Hillel or somebody else.
— Gamaliel. But Jesus never did that. The only person he quoted was his Father.
— That's right.
— And the scriptures. And this is why we now quote him. Let these words be in you. Speak these. Only say what he says. You'll go to the Father in my name. You get a little bit of a Jesus attitude about you. That's the only way I can describe it. You have to.
— You must have that.
— He taught them as one having authority. One is italicized. Let's leave it out. For he taught them as having authority. Not like the scribes.
— And over the years, I was still there in Tulsa. To show you what a scripturally literate I was at the time, I had a book that says, Roaming Through Romans. And I thought, well, maybe I better read Romans before I roam through it. Do you think? Well, I've read it a few times since in the last, well, 58 years. But that's where I was at that time. I was reading in the 17th chapter of John. And I thought, well, I've learned the prayer of agreement. So I'm going to take my Bible and I'm going to agree with Jesus because he prayed this. And so he began to pray. These words spoke Jesus, lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son. And I said, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Oh, yes. And now, oh, Father, glorify them. Oh, glorify me. Well, it's written. "I manifested thy name unto men. And I came on down". I kept, oh, yes, I agree with that. "Neither pray I for these alone, but also them that believe on me through their word". Well, yeah, praise God. Yes, amen. "These that all may be one, Father, in me and in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may know and believe that you have sent me. And the glory which you've given me, I have given them. I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me". And I said, "No, no, no. Just wait a minute here". You mean to tell me that God loves me just as much as he does Jesus? Now, I told you why I was in the book of Romans. And I was shaking. I didn't know whether I wanted to say that or not. That God loves Kenneth as much as he does Jesus? Oh, God. That God loves me as much as you do? But it's written in red. I have to believe it. Whether I feel like it or not. That God loves me as much as he does Jesus. I was shaking. But I want you to know my spirit man on the inside of me was jumping up and down hollering yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And I was standing there walking around in that little room. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, dear God. Oh, Jesus. Oh, thank You. Thank You for what You did for me at the cross when You raised from the dead. God loves me just as much as he does You. Oh, Jesus. Oh, my. I began to say it. I began to write it. I began to put it on everything. Underline scriptures that had anything to do with it. That my Father and then I got over and first John, he is love. I have known and believed the love that he has for me. Known and believed the love. Do you believe God loves you? Oh, yes, Brother Copeland. Do you believe that love? Huh? Do you believe that love? What is our commandment? Well, there's something or other about you love one another. Where'd you get that? Well, John, I think the 13th chapter. I said, what about first John? Oh. Well, we have known and we've had intimate relationship with that love and we believe it. Hallelujah. He loves me just as much as he loved Jesus because he died on that cross to get me.
— You're his son. You're his son.
— I'm his very own son and he's my very own Father.
— He sowed a Son to get sons.
— Yes, he did.
— You don't love one of your children and despise the others in the natural. How much more your heavenly Father?
— And we're out of time.
— We're out of time.
— For now. We'll be back in just a moment. Glory to God. Hallelujah.